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TEXT: 1 Corinthians 1:4-9SERVICE VIDEO (link)\n\n\n\nHow has God been faithful to you? That\u2019s what I want to get to today. You\u2019ve heard some testimonies of God\u2019s faithfulness in the service. We are going to look at how God was faithful in the Old Testament and in Christ as described in the New. And then I\u2019m going to leave you with that question: How has God been faithful to you?\n\n\n\nWe are continuing today with our series entitled, \u201cWhat is God Like?\u201d And today we are going to talk about the faithfulness of God!\n\n\n\nFaithful in the OT\n\n\n\nWe began the service with this declaration from Deuteronomy 32:\n\n\n\n\u201cFor I proclaim the name of the Lord;Ascribe greatness to our God!\u201cThe Rock! His work is perfect,For all His ways are just;A God of faithfulness and without injustice,Righteous and upright is He. (vv. 3-4)\n\n\n\nThere are a number of ways to talk about God\u2019s faithfulness, but perhaps the most foundational in scripture is the covenant. There are a series of covenants in the Old Testament between God and humanity, but each has the feature of God promising \u2013 in the most ultimate terms \u2013 to be and do something in relationship to human beings. God comes to Abraham and promises by covenant to bless Abraham and his descendants with land, descendants and blessing that will multiply out to all the nations of the world. Later God will renew this covenant promise with Abraham\u2019s descendants at Mt. Sinai and then with King David. And God does so in the ultimate terms of the covenants of those times, \u201cwith God as my witness and my life as pledge\u201d \u2013 an ancient version of our playground vow, \u201cCross my heart and hope to die\u201d as a way to signify our deepest commitment.\n\n\n\nIn every case I can think of, God\u2019s faithfulness in scripture is in reference to God keeping and fulfilling the covenant promises. God is seen as faithful because God keeps His promises. You can see God\u2019s faithfulness named in relation to the covenant in our two readings today from the Psalms.\n\n\n\nAnother feature of God\u2019s faithfulness is that it is not dependent on human faithfulness. If anything, it shines even more brightly because of human disobedience and unfaithfulness. Abraham, then various descendants after him, and the people of Israel as a whole, would disobey the terms of the covenant, turn from God, and lose their way. But the story of the Old Testament and the Bible as a whole is of God remaining steadfast and faithful even in the face of His covenant partners\u2019 unfaithfulness. Last week we read from Deuteronomy 4, in which God is renewing the covenant with the next generation of Israelites after delivering them from Egypt. The first generation had disobeyed and rebelled against God, but in the renewing of the covenant God pledged faithfulness. He even spoke of their future \u2013 after attaining the Promised Land \u2013 when they would turn away again and be carried into Exile. And God told them that even then He would be faithful if they would yet seek him.\n\n\n\nFaithful in the New\n\n\n\nThat faithfulness to the covenant with Abraham, his descendants, and David do not go away when we get to the New Testament. In fact, the whole of the New Testament can be seen as a demonstration of the faithfulness of God in keeping His promises. Those long genealogies at the beginning of Matthew and Luke? They are demonstrating that Jesus is \u201cof the line of David,\u201d one of the specifics of God\u2019s covenant promise to David that one of his line would sit on the throne forever. Jesus is named as Messiah because he is seen as the one God promised. He IS God\u2019s faithfulness in the flesh. Those ancient promises for land and descendants and the restoration of the Kingdom are fulfilled in the Kingdom of God and the expanded understanding of God\u2019s people, now including the Gentiles who come through Christ.\n\n\n\nJesus said in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5 that he did not come to abolish or do away with the Law and the Prophets, but to fulfill them. (v.17)\n\n\n\nA